Keeping ledger-accounts



Fig.1.

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ANDREW J. FOLGER, OF NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS.

KEEPING LEDGER-ACGOUNTS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ANDREW J. FOLGER, ofNantucket, of the county of Nantucket and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented a new and useful Alphabet Reference for Account- Books, knownas the Ledger Alphabet, and I do hereby declare that the following is afull and accurate description of my invention, reference being hadtherein to the annexed drawings, which form a part of thisspecification, and of which Figure 1 is a top View 1; size;'Fig. 2 is aperspective view% size; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 2, .2, Fig. 4 isa front view of a single card; Fig. 5 is a side view of a single card.

Similar letters indicate the same parts.

The nature of my invention consists in the construction and arrangementof an alphabet ledger, in a novel manner and form, for the purpose offacilitating the work of reference to individual accounts in posting.

To enable others to understand and use my invention, I proceed todescribe its construction and operation.

I make a flat rectangular box A, the material of which may be wood orother light substance; the box has a cover which fits over the top likea ribbon-box, or else, a lid fastened on with hinges. In the box, nearthe top, I place a false botton a, shown in the perspective View, Fig.2. I cut cardboard into slips or cards about half or a an inch wide andlong enough to allow one end to be turned over upon itself twice andmake a tag or ticket B, nearly or quite two inches in length, as shownin Fig. 4. The end turned over is fastened with gum or paste, and formsa head having a shoulder Z), on the under side, as shown in Fig. 5, thepurpose of which will be subsequently explained.

On the heads of fifty cards or tags, I print duplicate alphabets,omitting the letter X, which alphabets I place along the inner side oftwo contiguous sides of the box A, inserting the lower part of the cardsthrough slots or slits in the false bot-tom a, on which they aresuspended by the shoulders I), the heads remaining above, as shown inFigs. 1 and 3. The letters on the heads of the cards front one way, andare arranged in their alphabetical order, beinning after one blank cardin the upper left-hand corner of the box, as shown in Fig. 1, in whichthe lettered cards are represented in an inclined position to exhibitthe alphabets. The cards on the same side are placed equidistant, theedges on the upper range being near to each other, and the sides on theleft hand side being about the width of the cards apart.

The false bottom a, is pierced throughout with slots or slits similar tothose in which the alphabetical cards are suspended, which are ranged inparallel lines. In all these apertures I insert and suspend, in themanner before described, blank'tags or cards, making six hundred andtwenty-five in all.

The mode of keeping, and of referring to this ledger alphabet, is asfollows: When you wish to enter a name and reference to an account inthe ledger, say of Daniel Webster, you place the fore-finger of thelefthand at the letter D in the side column, and follow that row to theright until you come under the letter W, in the top column; raise thecard at the point of intersection and write the initials D, W, on thepart which hangs below the false-bottom of the box, and under them writealso the number of the folio in the ledger in which the account ofDaniel WVebster is posted. When you wish to find the account in theledger, reference can be made to the name and folio in the alphabet inthe same manner, and without dropping the pen from the hand whileposting, which will be found to be a great convenience and saving oftime and labor. Several references, quite enough for all practicalpurposes, can be entered on the same card, when the initials of thenames are the same, and as it is not necessary to enter the name in fullwith this arrangement of the ledger alphabet, confusion will be entirelyobviated by abbreviations. When the reference is to be made to animpersonal account, having but one initial, like cash, the entry can bemade on the alphabetical card itself which bears the right letter,either of the top or side column as may be preferred, and as this classof accounts is usually very limited, one alphabet will be found amplysufficient for them.

By the old method of a ledger alphabet, in a book, the accounts aredivided usually into twenty-five different parts, entered in as manypages, and a person when posting has frequently to hunt over from ten tofifty names to find the one wanted, while by this arrangement there are625 parts, all presented in full view at the same time, affordinginstant reference to an account. For

banks and other establishments doing business with a great many parties;this ledger alphabet will be found particularly advantageous, beingequally adapted to all descriptions of accounts; and for an extensivebusiness requiring a very large ledger,the alphabet box may be madedeeper below the false-bottom and the cards increased in length andbreadth as may be required.

Having thus described my invent-ion I claim 1. The box with the plate orfalse bottom (a) constructed with the slits for the'recep tion of thecards as represented in Fig.1, the said cards being arranged in themanner represented in Fig. 1 with two alphabetical indexes arranged atright angles to one another as a direct index reference to the name andsurname of individuals with

